


Star Wars, Episode Eight: The Bridge Of Darkness

by idrilsrewrites (idrilhadhafang)



Series: TLJ-TROS Rewrites [1]
Category: Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Action/Adventure, Canon Rewrite, Conflicted Kylo Ren, Creepy Snoke (Star Wars), Injury Recovery, Kylo Ren Has Issues, Kylo Ren and Rey Are Related, Kylo Ren is Not Nice, Major Character Injury, Mention of Child Killing That Does Not Happen, Multi, Past Poe Dameron/Ben Solo | Kylo Ren, Past Poe Dameron/Kylo Ren, Rey Skywalker, death of Han Solo
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-01-12
Updated: 2020-01-12
Packaged: 2021-02-27 14:49:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 760
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22218838
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/idrilhadhafang/pseuds/idrilsrewrites
Summary: In which the project to rewrite TLJ and TROS begins.
Relationships: Han Solo & Kylo Ren, Kylo Ren & Rey, Kylo Ren & Snoke, Poe Dameron/Kylo Ren, Rey & Ben Solo | Kylo Ren
Series: TLJ-TROS Rewrites [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1599418
Kudos: 3
Collections: The_Multishipper_Post_TROS_Happy_Place_Collection





	Star Wars, Episode Eight: The Bridge Of Darkness

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: I own nothing. 
> 
> Author’s Notes: I don’t have a good excuse outside of “my dreams made me do it”.

He didn’t know how long he lay in the snow with images of the past dancing in his mind. The place where his face had all but been sliced open — the girl had fought well, he would give her that. Even if that was partially his fault, all things considered — stung from exposure to the snow and the wind on Ilum. 

The same place on his face his father had touched before he fell to his death. 

He’d had to do it. He’d had to do it, and yet somewhere in the back of Kylo’s mind, a voice said, _Did you?_

Footsteps crunched through the snow, and Kylo almost groaned in exasperation at the familiar haughty lilt of Armitage Hux. 

”Snoke sent me,” the General said. “Do something useful for once in your life and get up.”

Kylo gritted his teeth both in pain and irritation (irritation was good. Irritation was better than feeling hollow) as he forced himself to his feet. 

***

The medbay on the Finalizer was admittedly, Kylo thought, almost unreal. Even as the medical droid tended to the scar that the girl had given him (and he had known that she had felt familiar, first when he had landed on Takodana and felt her, then the interrogation room, then Ilum), he could not help but keep remembering the inside of Starkiller Base. The bridge. His father, calling out his name. Their conversation on the bridge — when was the last time that Kylo Ren had let himself cry? That moment, just a moment, when Ben Solo struggled to resurface. Voices all around him, pulling him every which way before he made the decision that was supposed to quiet his maelstrom of conflict for good. 

It did the opposite. 

It should have been his triumphant step into the Dark Side. Becoming not merely Kylo Ren the Apprentice, but Kylo Ren, Warrior of the Dark Side. His grandfather, great as he was, could not bring himself to destroy family, Snoke had said. “ _What is the common theme that Jedi and Sith have, child? Sacrifice. To immortalize one’s love, to cherish through the blade, to use their memory to fuel your power, that is the true measure of sacrifice.”_

Snoke’s words echoed in Kylo’s mind, and yet somehow, they sounded hollow. Was there a point to the sacrifice of Han Solo?

 _You did a hard thing, child_. 

Kylo could feel the familiar presence of Snoke in his mind. The bond that formed between them, not unlike the bond between Master and apprentice. Of course, Snoke could not be called a Sith or a Jedi. As he had put it to Ben Solo, “ _I am who I was made to be._ ”

”I don’t feel like I won,” Kylo said. 

_Technically, you didn’t. Still, the fault is not entirely yours. The traitor was surprisingly skilled with a lightsaber, and the girl...though I must ask why you showed her compassion.  
_

_”_ It was...practicality,” Kylo said. Stars, but the wound in his side was painful. “She was strong, and...she felt familiar.”

_A girl from your past, unresolved?_

Kylo thought back to the Temple the night that he had destroyed it. How the girl...she had been in danger then, only a youngling. Ben Solo was willing to do many things at that moment, but killing a youngling was nigh unthinkable, let alone his little cousin. 

So he’d left her there, on Jakku. Jakku was a wretched place, but it was better than leaving her to the less scrupulous First Order troops who wouldn’t hesitate to kill a little girl. Even after he’d done what he did, he wondered if it was the right thing to do. 

He hadn’t told Snoke. As far as he knew, there was no Rey Skywalker, and he’d come to believe it. That she was buried with the other Jedi, buried with Ben Solo’s love for Poe Dameron. Buried with Ben Solo’s many secrets and mistakes...until now. 

She’d come back. And already, he wondered what he would tell her. 

Snoke’s voice was low and dangerous. _Why did you lie to me, Kylo Ren?_

“I couldn’t let her die,” Kylo said. “Not when she did nothing.”

_You killed whatever Jedi did not join you, and yet you could not kill your flesh and blood?_

_”_ I was weak then.” There. A half-truth. Kylo had gotten used to negotiating (or in cases like Poe Dameron, failing to negotiate) with Snoke. It wasn’t often, but it was there. 

_That is obvious. When you recover, should you recover...we have work to do._


End file.
